My Worry Insults God

Hang on, girls! This one is a painful one. It’s going to step on all our toes. Please approach this post with a prayerful attitude of contrition – asking God to expose any ungodly areas in your soul and uprooting them – making room for His Spirit to have full reign in your heart!

WHAT IS WORRY?

Here is are the definitions at dictionary.com

wor·ry

verb (used without object)

1. to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts; fret.

a synonym would be to have “anxiety”

Worry = fear. It is the opposite of faith.

WHAT DOES JESUS SAY ABOUT WORRY?

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore o not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34

According to your faith will it be done to you. Matthew 9:29

And (Jesus) did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. Matthew 13:58

WHAT WAS JESUS’ EXAMPLE?

I think about Jesus’ life and the example He gave for us of living by faith in God. He knew for years that He had come to die on the cross. He knew exactly when it would happen. He knew exactly what would happen. He knew how bad it would be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. He knew that His Holy soul would take on all the sin of the entire world for all time.

I think it is amazing that He only began to really experience the weight of what was coming in an emotional/spiritual/mental/physical way the night before His crucifixion. He didn’t worry. He talked about how it would happen – not that the disciples understood Him. And that night, those several hours before He was arrested, He began to pray so intensely that He actually was sweating blood (which has happened to other people, by the way, under extreme stress).

It’s easy to think that, “Oh, well, Jesus was perfect, He is God – so it wasn’t a big deal for Him to go through all of that suffering.”

But He was human! And He was holy and sinless. I think the most horrifying thing for Him was bearing our sin on Himself and losing that precious connection with His Father. I don’t think we can truly appreciate the scale of the weight of the sin He had to carry for us. To go from complete holy perfection to ” bearing the awesome weight of sin. Every bitter thought, every evil deed crowning His blood stained brow” to “take the blame, bear the cost” so that “we stand forgiven at the cross.” (The Power of the Cross – by the Gettys).

He did that for us. He bore up under the weight and strain and swallowed the grave and death in victory on our behalf.

And to think, He didn’t worry about all that was to come. And He KNEW what was coming.

We don’t know.

We sometimes think we know – but we don’t know what is ahead. Only God knows that.

IN MARRIAGE – I MUST CHOOSE BETWEEN CONTROL AND INTIMACY

Laura Doyle describes in “The Surrendered Wife” that a woman can either try to have control in her marriage or she can have intimacy – they are opposites. If you choose one, you can’t have the other.

If I place myself as being in charge of the marriage and try to control my husband – he will be repelled from me. God designed him to be the head, the authority, the leader and for a man to follow his wife – he would have to be a very spiritually/emotionally unhealthy man. A healthy man would balk at his wife trying to boss him around and control him. And he should! (A wife would not enjoy being ordered about by her husband, either – he is to lead selflessly, with humility and love, honoring his wife and treating her tenderly according to scripture.) That’s not God’s design. So he will either unplug and go passive or he will become angry. A wife does not gain intimacy with her man by attempting to be an authority over him. Acting like his angry mother will make him shut you completely out of his heart and soul, and make him want to rebel against you.

If I desire intimacy with my husband – then I must choose NOT to try to take control of the marriage and of him. The parallels with our relationship with Christ are so amazing. For me to experience real intimacy and relationship in my marriage, my husband MUST see my faith in him as a man, my trust in him, my respect for him, and he must hear my praises for him. THAT is how a woman draws a man to herself. The wife represents the church and the husband represents Christ in marriage. (Ephesians 5:22-33)

WITH CHRIST, I MUST CHOOSE FAITH OR WORRY

It’s a similar scenario in our relationship with Christ. I either choose to try to have control over God and my relationship with God (placing myself in the place of God – saying I am god. I’m in charge. This is all my responsibility. So I need to worry about it and make it all work out because it all depends on ME) or I can have faith in Him.

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews 11:6

If I choose worry – notice above when Jesus couldn’t do many miracles in Nazareth because of the people’s lack of faith. And when He did do miracles, it was always in proportion to the person’s faith. My faith in Christ opens the door for His power to be unleashed in my life.

If my faith is super small, Jesus can’t do much in my life. When my faith is small, it means my picture of Him is small, and my picture of myself is HUGE. I think I am in charge, not Him. I don’t understand Who He really is!

Worry doesn’t accomplish anything good. In fact, the medical community now has countless ailments that are directly attributed to the changes in our bodies’ chemistry when we concentrate and meditate on worry and negative things. Our immune system weakens measurably, our blood pressure goes up, we make more coritsol which further weakens the immune system and causes us to gain fat around the middle (contributing to diabetes), we get irritable, we get migraine headaches, we have so much adrenaline that we make more stomach acid and end up with ulcers, our brain chemistry changes and serotonin production is lowered as we think about negative things and we are depressed, our heart rate speeds up… and the list goes on!

God wants us to live by faith. We are literally cursed when we live in fear, doubt and worry. And the opposite is true when we live by faith! When we live by faith, and meditate on good things, and are thankful and forgiving, our blood pressure is better, we dont’ make too much cortisol or adrenaline, our heart rate is normal, our immune system actually is boosted, our serotonin levels go up (making us feel happier), we don’t have so many migraines, ulcers, infections, etc… The choices we make in our thoughts DIRECTLY affect the brain chemistry and physiology of our bodies! Our bodies, hearts and souls are connected.

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NOTE: The Peaceful Wife is not a licensed marriage counselor, therapist, pastor, or psychiatrist. Any information presented here is intended to encourage women to strengthen their walk with the Lord and any decisions women make are ultimately between themselves and Christ. If someone is in a dangerous situation, please reach out for help and try to get somewhere safe. Those with severe marriage issues or who have experienced abuse, please seek one-on-one, trusted counsel (medical, legal, and spiritual) as appropriate. My site is not intended for those experiencing issues with active addictions, unrepentant infidelity, uncontrolled mental health disorders, nor abuse.